Just like last Saturday, it's a beautiful day in West Central Wisconsin, and just like last Saturday, I'm going to cut wood. It has rained constantly for a week, which makes today, exceptionally beautiful. But first, a spot of coffee.

"Yes, C8H10N4O2. 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine,6-dione. As you know, DNA duplicates itself, but caffeine interrupts this holy process like a typhoon blasing all the punts in the River Isis, and explodes the genetic system. Caffeine replaces adenosine at the receptor sites of the neurons, causing the neurons themselves to fire at untenable rates. This usurpation and its unbridled effects, its attack upon the balance of nature, its liberation of the fire and light that serve as the battering ram of the soul, is a sin of the highest order.

"The greatest per capita consumption of coffee in the world is in Finland. True, they held back the Russians, but they're the most nervous people on earth, no one understands their language, and the beat themselves with branches. The average American drinks seven hundred and twenty gallons of liquid a years, of which approximately half is coffee. That is, one gallon, or sixteen cups, per day. Three percent of the population drink fifty cups a day, and fifteen percent drink forty. Sixty-seven percent of American adults and twenty-three percent of children are dependent on caffeine or various coffee acids."

I take my caffeine cold in the morning. But I'll join in. McCain is still on the radar, but only because I just listened to Captain Ed's interview on Pajamas Media. After acknowledging his immigration stand hurt him, McCain noted that he got the message that Americans want security first. That struck me as a very grown-up response and will make me look more closely at him.

Anyone else seeing local news stories every night about the new super staph bug that is killing more people than AIDS? Baltimore broadcasts are really doing the disaster scenario treatment.

I was infected by MRSA late last year, which I think I got from spending so much time in hospitals with a family member who had cancer. It was a terrible experience, because there's so much alarming information (and disinformation) about the bacteria out there. The infection was eventually cleared up, but it took several months and several recurrences. The treatment was an old antibiotic called Bactrim, which is a sulfa drug, as well as months of twice daily showers with Hibiclens. As I said, not fun but not the end of the world. You'll know it if you get it, it's not easy to ignore and is usually only dangerous to healthy people if left untreated, but it's a real public health concern. Staphylococcus is everywhere, but as readeriam said, due to many factors including the over-prescription of antibiotics, some strains of staph became resistant through natural selection. Evolution in action!

My advice: use a lot of alcohol-based hand sanitizer (it's an antiseptic, not an antibiotic so it doesn't promote resistance), wash your hands when you can, stay out of hospitals if you can, stay away from schools (disease incubators), and shower at home rather than at the gym.

I hope this didn't kill your appetite for coffee! I'm having a dry, rich "Scandinavian" blend from McNulty's right now.

Sulfa drugs are the one thing I have to put down on med forms under "drug allergies." Had a terrible reaction as a baby, and the allergy was confirmed was some silly doctor proceeded to give me one any at around age 4 or 5, in connection with one of my plastic surgeries following being seriously mauled by a dog. Damn near killed me.

I'll just have go with my typical inveterate, frequent hand-washing and hope. I certainly can't avoid schools or other places clogged with children.

Not me. Great American, but a lousy politician, too old, and too needy for media favor.

"Do people at some level say 'I like this guy, but he'll never get elected, so I'm 'throwing my vote away' if I choose him.'?"

Absolutely. For example, while I have no concerns (but spiritual ones) with Mormons, I'm pretty sure most swing voters will not vote for a Mormon for President - so Romney is off the list.

Conversely, Giuliani is more liberal than I, especially on social issues - but I think he's not only our best chance, but best of the field (voting Democrat is, in my estimation, akin to choosing suicide to prolong life... irrational as hell).

The trend has been away from legislators and toward executives for the Presidency, starting with Jimmy Carter. Hillary defies the conventional wisdom by being a female Senator front runner, and will defy all odds if/when elected. Rudy or Mitt were positioned for a successful run, if the Republicans hadn't self-destructed the past couple of years. McCain is an ass. For the good of the party, he should sit down.

Drinking unleaded iced tea after completing the yard work. High-test coffee would be much better.

I also wonder if the problem with some other illnesses, and also allergies (which among children in particular appear to be on the rise), has been aggravated by overly sealed homes cleaned overzealously specifically with antibacterials. But maybe that's a separate topic.

Just got a couple of recordings of Handel operas: Giustino, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, and Tamerlano, conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire with Rene Jacobs. Haven't gotten to the McGegan recording yet, but the Malgorie Tamerlano is pretty good so far.

My wife had a Case of MRSA a few years ago. real disaster, near malpractice IMHO. anyway...

she spent a week out in the woods, drove 10 hours home. Her knee started bothering her. took her to the ER. They diagnosed it as a knee trauma of some kind and referred her to an ortho guy. he drained fluid (but didn't analyze it) did xray, ultra-sound, MRI, cat-scan, never could find a problem. The knee swelled up the size of a volley ball. admitted her. The Hospital Bug guy (they all have bug killers) took one look, ran labs and put her on 3 sets of antibiotics. they ended up doing othroscopic surgery, flushing her knee with gallons of fluid, and putting her on a 3 week mult-drug intravenous antibiotic regime (at home). She lost most all the cartilage in her knee.

having said that, my local (DC) TV did a story on MRSA last night, it was awful, the clown didnt have a clue. one of his best lines was:

"there are two strains of MRSA, one found in hospitals is serious, the one found in schools isn't, it responds well to antibiotics"

duh. the second kind is your average normal staf. if it responds to well antibiotics, it isn't MRSA you idiot

Why does the professor always leave us in a coffee house? Why can't she leave us in a bar? You know for brunch. A jazz combo playing softly in the background. Eggs Benedict or maybe a spinach omelet with a bellini and fresh brewed coffee as a chaser. Then we can segue into a few beers and a Philly cheese steak sandwich while we are watching the game. All the while we are leafing through the papers and reading how the Yankees insulted Joe Torre by offering to make him the highest paid manager in the major leagues. Then an appetizer platter, maybe some mozzarella sticks or fried zucchini dipping into a blue cheese sauce. A few more beers until the dinner hour. Than we can call for a bottle of wine or two, say a nice Shriaz from Australia or a hearty Chilean vintage that we would enjoy as we order a skirt steak in chimichurri sauce with garlic mashed potatoes. Then an after dinner cocktail, perhaps some Martel cognac with dessert, some prunes braised in red wine with mascarpone cheese. Topping off the evening with some Jameson’s and a few beers just to keep us mellow. Why doesn’t she ever leave us there I ask you?

Why always a coffeehouse and not a bar? Because I only put up posts like this in the morning (when I think you come here expecting to see something) and I would never drink alcohol in the morning. In the evening — when I might have a glass of wine — I may or may not put up a post or two, so I never feel the need to put up a placeholder post like this.

Palladian and Drill Sgt, sounds awful. I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with staph.

My mom retired as a TB nurse 20 years ago complaining about the overuse of antibiotics and what it was doing to the TB strains. Health departments were then cutting back on TB programs and she was convinced it was poised to make a major comeback. Duh!

Professor, a mimosa with fresh squeezed OJ with your mushroom omelet? Coffee on the side with a big icy cold glass of spring water. Freshly buttered rye toast and a basket of fluffy croissants.You might be missing a trick. Just say'n, ya know.

I would only consider McCain if he'd renounced McCain-Feingold several years ago, when it wouldn't have been so politically expedient. I assumed Bush signed it to get it off the table and let the SC gut it. I'm surprised no one is actively running against it.

Caffeine is an irritant to the colon. When my cats were still living, I could only eat about half a chocolate bar without being ill. Four doctors and multiple fun tests didn't find I was allergic to my cats (but not other cats).

Freshly buttered [seedless] rye toastOne of our Organic Chem labs was to extract and convert the essence of carraway seeds into its stereoisomer, the essence of oil of peppermint. Aside from the texture, a roomful of boiling carraway seeds put me off them.

That's a horrifically huge meal that should only be eaten late in the day. My idea of a good breakfast is coffee with a lot of milk. Possible a piece of toast. A croissant for a special occasion. Then, sometime after 3, it's time for food. And I'm a morning person. (It's all about the ghrelin.)

You can't live in a bubble. You build immunity by being exposed (a little bit) to the germs.

I agree. I have a pretty amazing immune system thus far *knocks wood*, and I think one of the reasons is that I spend a lot of my week in public schools in (not always well-ventilated) little practice rooms, sometimes teaching kids who should probably be home instead of bringing their illness to school.

(I should also note how many kids I seem to have to teach to cover themselves when they cough or sneeze. I'm good-natured about it, saying things like, "Please, don't share!" when they do this.)

What I'm listening to: the two newest releases from Chris Potter, some older Jerry Bergonzi (thank you, Amazon downloads!), the newest project from Maria Schneider, and a recent release from a Vermont/Boston-based trumpeter named Alex Toth (not the comic book guy), whom I discovered a couple of years ago at the appropriately-named Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington.

Trooper York:Why does the professor always leave us in a coffee house? Why can't she leave us in a bar? You know for brunch. A jazz combo playing softly in the background.

Jazz combos can play at coffeehouses, too (even if I've had the unfortunate experience of having a few of those go out of business on me). A couple of my groups should be recording fairly soon, so don't be surprised if I put up a link to something of mine at a future Alt-Coffee-house.

Kev, the reason they went bankrupt is because the place is full of coffee drinkers. You need real drinkers, who come for coffee and a salty breakfast with a hair of the dog (not in the eggs of course). Once you get them in, you can keep them there getting and spending. Trust me, I consulted enough times to turn any coffee joint into a real fun wine/beer/coffee joint. Let me help you with the menu, we can make it happen dude.

My natural inclination is not to eat anything for at least three or four hours after I get up. But I've always been told that's bad. For years I did eat breakfast, when I was actively trying to lose weight. Now I've slacked off and started having the first meal at something more like lunch, I've noticed that it doesn't seem to matter either way, as far as the weight thing goes.

Ann, I Googled "ghrelin," so I got the basic definition, but that doesn't mean I'm grasping your point. Care to expand? My curiosity is piqued.

Professor we have to agree to disagree. Although I don't know if it technically counts as breakfast when you haven't gone to bed from the night before. I think it's called the Elvis paradox. So we might be in accord, it will just necessitate further research and development.

Ralph: Yeah. I don't make it to evening, but yeah--about the 11:30 thing.

Maybe it's sort of like the old rule, from college, about beer: go ahead and drink it, but try to put off peeing as long as possible, because once you loose the floodgates, you'll have to go every 5 minutes. Never quite understand why that was (never seemed to logical to me), but in the event ... it proved out, time and time again.

Now evening. Notre Dame got crushed (smile). Michigan State nearly got to OSU. I am having similarly to another on this board, a very strong glass of coffee in a single cup packet from a hotel room in Stockholm.

There is something very pleasant about drinking coffee from a clear drinking glass. The warmth passes so much better. On a good, almost great day like today it is a very fine way to wane the evening.

Trooper--just to clarify, when I said I had coffeehouses go out of business on me, I meant that I played there, not that I owned them. I have the sneaking suspicion that you're right with the "alcohol = business" idea, even as I still hope that a few independent coffeehouses with live music can stay afloat in an over-Starbucked area.

I would like to ask you, though--were the places that you consulted with still all-ages venues after alcohol was added to the proceedings? Keeping younger people from hearing live music because of alcohol sales is a big soapbox issue for me; I teach at a two-year college and several secondary schools, so I wouldn't want to play at a place where my students couldn't even walk in the door, much less sit in on occasion. The all-ages thing can work, but many owners don't want to put forth the effort.

Kev, the key is what type of liquor license is involved. If you have a "Full" license in New York State, it includes all types of liquor such as wine, beer and hard liquor such as whiskey, vodka, tequila etc. I usually recommend only a beer and wine license which costs about 1/3 as much and there is a lot fewer problems. It takes a lot to let someone get drunk on wine and beer if the staff is paying attention. This is best for the coffee shop/wine bar location. Your place can be family friendly especially at brunch. You really want to have kids only up to the early afternoon if you want to be successful. Plus families with children are not the people you want in your joint if you want to make money. They are normally on a budget and take up space that is better utilized by singles that come to your joint to socialize. What you also need to do is get a large selection of nondescript wines from Italy, Spain, Argentina, and Chile and put the per bottle price at a high number. Then have a lot of half price nights and afternoons so you still get your profit margin. For example you can get some great wines at $4.95 wholesale and price them at $40. On half price day you still get $20 a bottle. Your goal is to get the price of the bottle in just one drink. Then you start making money and you can pay waitresses, bartenders and your jazz combo’s. This presupposes that your goal is to have a viable business that will survive. If you want to provide a community meeting place, just start a bonfire, link hands, and starting singing Kumbaya. Hope I didn’t bore you. All the best.